100% how I feel! Having learnt Spanish in Madrid I felt fairly confident in communicating in Argentina. My first experience there was stopping at a bus station that was experiencing a black out, and a guy asked for my orange peel for his mate. The combination of his bizarre accent and request (at least to me) totally threw me off for a good while.

Haha sorry, I just re-read that and realise I didn't make it particularly clear. He wanted to add it to his flask of herbal tea (called Mate, pronounced Maté I think...). Don't know whether that new information makes you less or more curious now! :)

I'm a native English speaker and I sometimes have trouble with really pronounced accents. Add regional slang and sometimes it's like "I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be English, but I have no idea what you just said."

There is a "saying" in Germany - ein sächselnder Schwabe in Bayern - putting together the 3 most ununderstandable dialects to mean something like "he just does not get understood".

When I was in Japanese class (near saxony) there was a Schwabe. When he first said something you could hear the gears in all people's heads coming to a stop. The Japanese teacher needed 2 seconds, then she got what he said. She was probably the only one in the room. We got used to him but the first week was strange.

This is so true... I was at a party a couple months ago hanging out with some Chileans speaking French. One of them said something in Spanish and I responded without thinking, and he said "Oh you speak Spanish too? Let's just speak Spanish then!" I understood maybe 10% of what was going on. Then one of my friends, who's from Mexico, walked up and asked what was going on. I swear the Chileans switched languages. Suddenly they were speaking comprehensibly and I understood 95% of the conversation (and actually took part in it). Then my Mexican friend went to get a drink, and just like that, the Chileans switched back and I was lost. I secretly think they don't really speak Spanish down there...

Too many local words, and all of them too fast. (Chilean here). When speaking with people from other countries, we slow down and stop using the local slang. I understand how that seems like a different language.

I remember when I was working on my Spanish listening comprehension, I watched this Chilean movie called El Club, and aside from being a terrible movie, I only understand about 10% of what was being said.

Really discouraged me, but I didn't know the reputation Chilean accents have at the time...

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ITCHY FEET is the weekly web comic about travel, life in foreign countries, and learning new languages. Readers can expect an astonishing array of exaggerated facial expressions, humorous situations involving foreigners and foreign lands, and ordinary silliness.